


Burn With Icarus's Wings

by StanleyQuinn



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
Genre: Canonical Character Death, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 21:04:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13303200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StanleyQuinn/pseuds/StanleyQuinn
Summary: A "To The Sky Without Wings" -verse tale set in the canon of "The Last Jedi".Obviously, spoilers for the film within.  Abandon all hope of remaining ignorant, all ye who click here.





	Burn With Icarus's Wings

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [to the sky without wings](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5609887) by [leupagus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/leupagus/pseuds/leupagus). 



Luke hasn’t aged a day.

 

Poe blinks hard, uncertain for a long moment, hand rising to automatically check over his head to feel for bumps which might be causing the hallucination in front of him.  His limbs are slowly turning to stone, the crystal salt of the ground seeping into him and calcifying him in place.  He isn’t used to reaching for his sense of the Force anymore, but like steering a kid’s old A-Wing base 10 unit, the sense floods back, swamping him with new information.

 

The world tilts sideways, his stomach sinking to his shoes faster than it would in a reverse maneuver made suddenly at several G’s.

 

It isn’t Luke and yet, the man stands there, feeling similar to a balled up concentration of the Force he’s witnessed Luke use so many times before.  Luke has force-projected across millions, maybe billions of light years to achieve this.

 

“It’s not real. He’d burn himself out,” Poe whispers, heart stammering angrily in his chest.  His words are too soft for the soldier next to him to hear, but somehow, they draw Luke’s eyes to him.  The salt must have reached his lungs, because he can’t breathe now.  How badly injured is he?

 

“It’s Skywalker,” someone murmurs, and the illusion shatters, salt crystals splintering away and leaving only the deep red truth beneath, blood on the ground.

 

“Poe.”

 

The voice in his mind is full of terrible regret and vibrating with need and sadness.  Poe struggles to keep to his feet under the sudden weight of shared grief.  He’d thought up a million things he’d planned to say to Luke if the man had ever returned. Thousands of recriminations, thousands of ways he would make the man beg before he might deign to speak to him again, thousands of witty quips to toss at the man’s terrible beard before walking away, and always…

 

Always just one thing he had sworn to himself he wouldn’t say. 

 

So, of course, Luke swans back into his life this way, shrouded in his Jedi mysticism, kriffing looking exactly the same as he’d looked the day they parted on the forest moon of Endor.

 

Where those forbidden words are the only words left for Poe to say. 

 

Luke’s over-bright blue eyes still linger on Poe’s, so Poe uses every ounce of whatever sensitivity with the Force he has to shove just three words out to Luke, heat flaring briefly through him before that sense of the world flickers out, exhausted.  It seems only fair that he burn out with Luke, even if Poe has no intention of giving his life today.  Luke’s eyes brighten impossibly for a moment with the shimmer of tears, letting Poe know the other man heard him.  Luke’s fingertips rise, brushing for a moment over his heart, returning the sentiment silently, before he continues his march out into the sunlight.

 

The world is cold, dim, and silent in a way he’s never experienced before.  He knows he seeks Leia for a moment, but his grief is mirrored in her eyes, nothing there for him but confirmation of what he knows.  He seeks one last glimpse of Luke outside, but the motions are automatic.  Nothing cuts through the strange fog gripping him, so he returns to the front lines. 

 

Poe becomes distantly aware again as Finn rushes to his side.  “We have to help him,” Finn insists, the sound of the world rushing back in as Poe instinctively reaches out to stop Finn from running after something he can’t follow.  Finn feels warm against his skin, and the world snaps back into true focus once more.

 

His mind races, barely pausing to make the connections it needs, but he knows with a soul deep certainty that Luke wouldn’t do this, wouldn’t sacrifice himself for Leia this way, if there is no hope.  “He got in here somehow,” Finn insists, and Poe fights a weary smile. 

 

Yes, Poe imagines answering.  The Jedi master came in by burning out his life essence, which sounds like a much more pleasant way to go compared to facing down certain death outside or being trapped in this base with nothing left to eat except those…

 

“Listen!”

 

The silence wasn’t completely in his mind after all.

 

One salt fox had remained, more keen to lead them out than any natural wild animal would ever be.  Poe decides to believe Luke has reached out, willing compassion for the rebels into this creature, and for the first time, he rejoices in having no certainty in his beliefs, no warmth guiding his thoughts.  Leia had once told him that those who believe without seeing took more joy in their beliefs.  He’s never understood it until now.

 

He falls back during their retreat through the caves on the pretext of helping Leia, and she bats him away with a playful scowl they both know she’s only feigning.  “I’m not merely an old lady in need of an arm to hold,” she reminds him, steadying herself with the Force.  Luke’s absence had taught her to use it more than any of his attempts at lessons ever had. 

 

“ _I_   wouldn’t know it to look at you now,” he tells her, and she reaches up, trailing gentle fingers over his face as she slowly understands his meaning.

 

“You could have seen him again, you know,” she murmurs.  “I think he would have wanted that.”

 

“He can’t always get what he wants,” Poe remarks with what he considers a great attempt at levity, but her eyes tell him it’s an utter failure.  “I said all I needed to say.”

 

Leia nods sadly, and Poe returns to the front of the group, squeezing Finn’s arm gently as he rejoins him, grateful for the other man’s silent and steady presence at his side, stoking his faith.  His hope is a fragile and fickle thing though, swelling and leaping into his throat as they come face to face with a wall of fallen rocks blocking their way.

 

Despairing words don’t have time to fall from his lips and shatter on the ground though.  The world suddenly grows warm, his senses flooding alive as the rocks begin to float away. 

 

Leia chuckles dryly as she steps up beside him, patting his arm as he stares, awe-stricken, at the floating rocks, reveling in the warmth wrapping all around them.  “My brother always gets what he wants.”


End file.
